CHRIS WATTS PLEADED FOR HIS PREGNANT WIFE AND DAUGHTERS TO COME HOME — DAYS LATER, THE TRUTH EMERGED

In August 2018, Chris Watts stood outside his Colorado home and looked directly into a television camera with a desperate message for his missing family.

His pregnant wife, Shanann Watts, and their two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had disappeared.

Watts told reporters that he wanted them to come home.

At the time, the family’s disappearance had become a desperate search that was attracting national attention.

But within days, investigators would uncover a devastating truth.

“I JUST WANT THEM BACK”

Shanann, 34, had returned to the family home in Frederick, Colorado, during the early hours of August 13, 2018, after a business trip.

She was 15 weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child.

Their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, were also at the house.

Later that day, concern grew when Shanann failed to respond to messages and missed a medical appointment. A friend contacted police, prompting officers to check the family home.

Watts then spoke to local television reporters.

Standing on the front porch, he described the house as empty without his wife and children.

“My kids are my life,” he said during the televised appeal, according to ABC News.

He also pleaded: “I just want them back. I just want them to come back.”

He told reporters that he had no idea where his family had gone and described the situation as a nightmare.

At that moment, the public was still searching for answers.

THE SEARCH QUICKLY TURNED

Investigators began examining the family home, Watts’ account of what had happened and his movements around the time Shanann and the girls disappeared.

Authorities also discovered that Watts had been involved in an affair with a co-worker, according to court records later made public.

The investigation soon moved away from the possibility that Shanann and the children had simply left.

On August 15, Watts was taken in for questioning.

He eventually admitted killing his family and led investigators to the locations where their bodies had been concealed, according to court records and contemporary reporting.

The following day, authorities confirmed that Shanann’s body had been found on property connected to Watts’ workplace. Investigators also recovered the bodies of Bella and Celeste nearby.

The search for a missing family had become a murder investigation.

A FAMILY’S WORST NIGHTMARE

The revelations stunned friends and relatives who had initially believed Watts was desperately trying to find his wife and daughters.

Friends told ABC News that they had stood beside him during the early stages of the search and had not suspected that he was responsible.

The case also drew enormous public attention because of the contrast between Watts’ televised appeals and what investigators later established.

His appearance on television had captured a father seemingly pleading for the safe return of his children.

Within days, he was facing murder charges.

WATTS LATER PLEADED GUILTY

Watts was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and other offenses.

In November 2018, he pleaded guilty to killing Shanann, Bella and Celeste, as well as to the unlawful termination of Shanann’s pregnancy and tampering with the victims’ bodies.

He was sentenced to five life sentences without the possibility of parole, including three consecutive life sentences.

The case therefore ended without a trial determining his guilt, because Watts admitted responsibility through his guilty plea.

THE TELEVISION APPEAL THAT NEVER LEFT PEOPLE’S MINDS

Years later, footage of Watts standing outside his home continues to circulate because of what happened shortly afterward.

He had spoken publicly about wanting his family home.

He described missing his daughters’ smiles and imagined them running through the door to hug him.

But investigators were already closing in.

What initially appeared to be a desperate public search for a missing wife and two children became one of the most closely followed family murder cases in the United States.

For Shanann’s family, there was no happy reunion waiting at the front door.

For Bella and Celeste, there would be no return home.

And for the unborn child Shanann was carrying, there would never be a chance to enter the world.

The televised plea remains a haunting part of the case — not because it revealed what had